Alma 5:7,9

(Aldste Cummings)
Hello everybody!

This week has probably been one of the more eventful weeks of my mission.

Why do you ask? Good question.

Wednesday evening, Elder Mathias and I got a call from President Youngberg. President Youngberg does not usually call in the middle of Week 4 of the transfer so we immediately knew something was up.

"Elder Cummings," says he, "are you ready to get your world rocked?"

To make a long story short, by 11.00 the next morning, I left Boden for good. Within 24 hours of the call, I was in Gothenburg waiting for a train to take me to my new area, Halmstad.

My world? Consider it rocked.

President decided that I me and the missionary that was serving here in Halmstad needed to switch places mid way through the transfer, so we did. My new companion had only been out 3 weeks when I got here so now I'm training again. This means, by missionary lingo, I have another son. Rather unexpected, but it's exciting. Especially because it was almost exactly a year ago that I met my first "son," Elder Burns.

Halmstad is a beach town on Sweden's southwestern coast. It's much warmer here. I left the 3 feet of snow in Boden behind me and said hello to above freezing temperatures in Halmstad. Spring came quickly for me.

The best part about the whole ordeal was that I got to pass through Gothenburg on my way down. It felt so amazing to be in that city. I love the huge rocky ridges and the mossy forests. I made so many fantastic memories in that city and I love it so much. Thank you again to the people who made those few months of my life so phenomenal. You know who you are.

It was tough to leave Boden, though. It was such a winter wonderland. Exactly what you would expect a winter in Sweden to be. The people could be both so grim and hearty just like you would expect the descendents of vikings to be. I've made some really good friends there that will impact me for life. Thank you for those of you have those months so memorable for me. You know who you are.

I just want to end quick with the two verses I cited in the subject bar. Alma characteristically figurative imagery creates a very poetic description of conversion and the witness of the Holy Ghost. His language here is the most accurate description of something that is so difficult to describe. It stirs one's ponder on how one has also been able to experience being awoken to God from a deep sleep and feeling one's soul being illuminated by the light of the everlasting word. Even in the moment one reads it, one feels their soul expand and desire to sing redeeming love.

Such a beautiful and powerful description of something so sacred and indescribable. It could only have been written by someone who was very familiar with the experience which clearly Alma was. I hope that each of us will read these verses and ponder how the Spirit has spoken to us in our own moments of darkness and deep sleep.

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. Last companionship pic 😥

2. Northern Sweden from the air (Hejdå Norbotten).

3. Gothenburg, it was good to be back.

4. That's right, I live here (pt 17).

5. Father and son picnic on the beach.

6. One of the most Swedish neighborhoods I've ever seen.

I love you better

(Sister Slade)
This was an interesting week. Like last week, I really don't know where it went. Time just flew by.

We found a new person to teach! His name is Doug. I actually wasn't there when Sister Davis found him because we were on exchanges BUT it was super exciting to go back to central park and have a new person to teach.

I always seem to get talked into the crazy things. Remember last month how we made 90 loaves of bread? I think what we're doing this week will top that. We are running a half marathon on Saturday. Our mission president gave us permission, and we got a promotion code because the missionaries volunteer every year. So I get to die for free! Sister Davis and another sister in my stake are running it with me, so now my insanity has company. I can't decide if I'm excited of terrified. We've had about two weeks to train, so we're super prepared... I actually think that we're going to be okay. On Saturday, we ran 10 miles  in the pouring rain and we didn't die, and that's pretty close to 13.1 miles. However, we are very sore now.

The older couple that we're teaching, Beverly and Brian, have had a rough week. Brian has had cancer for 2 years and was put on hospice care a couple of weeks ago. On Thursday night, he took a turn for the worse. Beverly has really been struggling, so we've been going by every day. Unfortunately, Brian passed away yesterday morning. Before he died, he had asked me if I would sing at his funeral, so next Sunday, that's where I'll be. I'm so grateful for the knowledge that I have about the Plan of Salvation. I know that Brian is somewhere where he can continue to learn about and accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that families can be together forever, and I know that I will see Brian again and can sing hymns with and to him. The subject line is something Beverly told us as we were leaving yesterday afternoon.

You are loved!

Sister Slade

 1. Registering for a half marathon

2-4 some sisters borrowed our pan, so on our morning run we went to pick it up from them and then ran back with it

5. A pretty picture

6. My hair after running 10 miles in the rain

7. Super nice day when we walked and I got a sun burn

8. That's a lot of bread that goes to the pigs

"Bata"? Spanish or Puerto Rican?

(Hermana Ellsworth)

If anyone was wondering.... The church is still true. Jesus Christ is still the son of God. God still answers prayers. And miracles still happen. Crazy things happen on missions and you can be blessed in the weirdest ways but I will say that I have seen the tender mercies of the Lord in my life everyday here. I encourage people to read Alma 5 and notice the word "invitation" and Alma's testimony. He says so much but testifies that He knows of it through the power of the Holy Spirit which is the spirit of revalation that is in im. I know that what I preach is the word of God through that same spirit and I know that I am supposed to be here in Puerto Rico learning a weird form of Spanish.

A little update on one of the people that we are teaching. His name is Herb. He is from New York, New York and is such a special guy. He stood at the base of the twin towers when the first plane flew into the building. While teaching him about the Holy Ghost and how it talks to us he shared a beautiful testimony about how greatful he was for the protection God gives his children. He stood at the base of the twin towers the morning of 9/11 and right before he was about to open the doors he heard a voice tell him to stop, turn around, and go home. 10 minutes later the plane hit. Ever since that day he has been searching for a way to understand and hear that voice again. While the spirit rarely speaks to someone in an audible voice we should always be striving to live our lives in a way to hear and understand the voice of God better. He speaks to us all individually and specifically. Just like any other muscle in the body our spiritual receptivity muscle needs to be strengthened everyday. This is done through prayer, scripture study, and actively listening to the voice of God. These three things take effort and time and are hard to do sometimes. But never feel like it impossible to do.

I love each one of you so much and please pray for an opportunity to help move the missionary work forward in your area. Feeding the missionaries is great but also ask if you can come to a lesson or help a person of interest get to church!

Here are some fun pictures next to a colorful wall that we found

and some funny pictures of Hermana Boston (Not my comp but fun girl in our Casa) reading before bead, eating soup, and playing in the rain with me in our Batas!  :)

Earthquake, smoothies, kickball

(Hermana Ellsworth)

I am constantly sunburned. I always wear a giant hat and no one can say my last name because "worth" isnt something that the Spanish language has sounds for. But one thing that I know for sure is that the people here in Puerto Rico are amazing. They always let us in to talk to them and they love Jesus Christ a lot. I love to listen (have my trainer translate for me) to their stories about how they have used faith in their life. There are some amazing people here and we are having success in contacting and teaching.  People have liked to stop me and take my picture with red hair and blue eyes and Im pretty sure I am on like 4 different snapchat stories of some 11 year old girls.

I wanted to share the story in Alma 5. This chapter talks about how Alma the younger has gained his testimony. He knows for himself because of fasting many days and praying for an answer. He knows through the power of the Holy Ghost that manifest the truth of all things. The very last verse he says that he speaks to those not of the church by way of invitation. Invitation to come unto Christ, be baptized, and to partake of the fruit of life. Go and extend that invitation. Crazy things happen when you open your mouth and speak of the great things that the Lord has revealed.

Also it is a thing here to have people invite you share their message and just give you a whole bunch of fruit at the end of the lesson. So every morning I have been putting all the fruit into a smoothie. I have concluded that banana, strawberry, papaya, and star fruit smoothies are the best things in the world.

Also funny thing happened but there was an earthquake here. The members keep saying it is a 4.6. If someone could confirm that that would be great. But I was in the middle of praying for my hiccups to go away when the earthquake hit. My hiccups went away. Tender mercies I guess.... Thank you.

By the way I don't think I have said this yet but I am in Guayama in Puerto Rico and there have been some issues with mail here and all mail must go to the mission office first :) thanks :) I love you all and I hope that you are doing well! Thanks for the replies about Captain Marvel :) LOOVE YYYOOUUU

Romans 3:23

(Aldste Cummings)

Tjenare!

I hope you guys have had a good week, because we have.

Spring is here baby!! Not really, actually. Not at all, actually. The temperature is pretty consistently around freezing and we got another foot or so of snow this week so that's fun. This is probably the most snow I've ever seen on the ground at one time in my whole life although last year apparently they had about 6 feet so this winter has been rather mild comparatively.

Elder Mathias lost his last nametag bringing us to a grand total of 6 since he came to Boden 9 weeks ago. He was stressing out about losing the last one so he asked that we say a prayer to find it. We decided that he had the most faith that we would find it so he should hold the prayer so he prayed and we went out looking for it in the dark and in the middle of a snow storm. We stopped by a little snow bank where I had pushed him into the snow but we couldn't see any nametag anywhere except when Elder Mathias looked at the ground from a specific angle and found the nametag lying in the snow while more snow piled on top. If we had waited much longer, then the snow would have covered it completely, the plow would have picked it up, and it would be gone forever. So that was a little miracle. But maybe when all the snow melts we might be able to find the other lost tags.

This week we ran into a surprising amount of people on the street that we were intending to get in contact with but couldn't. The most notable one being this one time when we were knocking doors and someone opened and the whole house smelled like popcorn and I got snacky and realized that The Dollar Store was very close by so I convinced Elder Mathias to come with me to buy popcorn at the store before going in for lunch and so we did and while we were there we met the 19 year-old son to someone we were teaching who had asked us to stop visiting. We were sad that we wouldn't be visiting him more, but we were also sad that we wouldn't be able to talk to his son who seemed interested in what we had to say but never really got the opportunity to talk to us. So we got to walk around the store with him and talk with him about a good deal of things. It was really fun. The Lord works in mysterious ways. Popcorn. Huh. Who woulda guessed?

Another kind of fun thing that happened this week was that we were hanging with our good friend and fellow Red Cross volunteer Sara and were helping her renovate her house. Elder Mathias was scraping off wallpaper while I was sanding the stairs--the whole summer we spent sanding our porch in NJ came in handy there. Anyway, Elder Mathias noticed there were some wires by the circuit-breaker that he needed to scrape around and was afraid to that he might touch them and wanted to check if they were live. So in fear that he might touch them, he decided to touch them...carefully.

Luckily, he was fine because he went to lengths to assure that he would not have been harmed, but all the lights and electrical appliances in the whole house shut off. Sara's boyfriend knew enough about electricity to fix the problem and get everything on again which was great. But the funniest part was while we were getting back to work, Sara came to us from the kitchen and said "Hey guys, come check this out." She then showed us that by turning on the stove, the lights in the laundry room and a radio by in the kitchen would turn on. So evidently something was still wrong with the electricity. With a little more finagling, Sara's boyfriend fixed it all up and everything was as good as new. We all had a good laugh about it. So without dwelling too much on who poked what into what and who nearly blew up the house and who caused the "spooky action at a distance" (Quote: Albert Einstein) between the radio and the stove, it was a thoroughly pleasant evening.

This week, I've been reading a lot in Romans and I love this scripture. Everyone makes mistakes and everyone falls short. There is no use gloating about personal strengths, judging others because of their mistakes, or even beating ourselves up over our own weaknesses. No one is perfect and although this doesn't justify our validate any complacency in our own eternal progression, it is important to keep in mind a realist perspective.

Have a great week!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

 1. This nice driver on the highway gracing us with their rendition of "The Northern Lights."

2.This drink is sold only twice a year--Christmas season and Easter season. Mmmm baby, it's back.

3 "Goldie, look at this! Look at all the [snow] in his mustache. Good sir that's a lot of [snow]!" -Flynn Ryder

Did this week even happen?

(Sister Slade)

That is a legitimate question. I can't really remember this week. It seemed to go by so fast and also, it still feels like last Tuesday. I am convinced that this last week was a dream.

We had zone conference on Friday. It was super good! We talked about what it means to believe what you believe in. It's similar to the idea of believing in Christ and Believing Christ. We have to believe that Christ can do what he says he can do for us and we have to believe that the gospel works. If you want a really good talk to listen to or read, I would highly recommend Believing Christ by Elder Robinson.

The Arkansas Bentonville mission is one of 10 missions in the world that is part of a service experiment that Elder Ballard asked us to do. Each companionship is required to do 10 hours of service a week. It's been an amazing experience to do so much service. We serve at a senior center, an assisted living, a food pantry, and a literacy council. Since we started this experiment last month, we have found 2 new people to teach! Service softens people's hearts.

I love you!

Sister Slade

Pictures:

1. We had to have at least one fun picture, so I got in a car shopping cart

2. another random picture my companion took

3. We were at a member's house and Sister Davis took this picture of me

4. We decided to run a half marathon. WE'RE GOING TO DIE.

5. All of the bad bread at the food pantry

1 John 4:20

(Aldste Cummings)

Mina kära vänner,

I hope you guys have all had a great week.

We had another rousing round of Boden Bonanza this week. Not necessarily a lot of content worth sharing, though.

It snowed literally alllll day Friday, Saturday and most of Sunday. So we have another 1 and a half feet or more of snow on top of what we already had. It's now close to 5 feet in some places but probably averages more like 2.5. So much for our hopes of an early spring.

This week we were able to strengthen our relationships with the people we work with at the Red Cross. One of them, our boy Rasmus, is going to come with us on a lesson this week. He's not a member but we're super tight with him and wants to see what we do. Anyway, that way we will be able to teach him too. Two birds with one stone.

Our other Red Cross friend, Sara, is working on renovating her house so we got to come over and help a little bit. We were in our nice clothes so we didn't get into the more intense stuff but we're planning on doing that soon.

I was doing a good bit of thinking today about love and the Lord's commandment to love everyone. It's vital but daunting. There really is no place for hate in the heart of a disciple of Christ.

Have a great week! Love your neighbor!

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. Found some cool snow sculptures in downtown Boden.

2. Where's Shrek when you need him? 

3. Scraping off wallpaper with Sara.

4. 🅱ig 🅱oy got a 🅱ig 🅱iece of wallpa🅱er

PUERTO RICO!!! (Not Costa Rico, please learn that!)

(Hermana Ellsworth)

Hello my dearly beloved! I have made it safely to Puerto Rico! I am excited to share the gospel and this first week has been an exciting one. I had to say goodbye to an amazing district in the CCM. I am so grateful for the things I learned there and the friends I made.

We got into Puerto Rico on Tuesday after flying to Panama. My trainers name is Hermana Nelson and she is amazing! She is from California/Mississippi. I am so excited to work with her.

We have seen so many miracles this past week. We have a 11 new investigators and we have one who has committed to baptism. I have experience so much about what it means to be a servant of the Lord. The Lord has a huge hand in the work here in Puerto Rico and I am so grateful for the opportunity to work here.

Some of the best things that happened this week is when my trainer and I were driving and when we stopped we had an overwhelming feeling to leave. We left and found a new area to go in and immediately found a young family who was interested in the Gospel. I know that this is the true church and that he guides us to where we need to be.

Also I have no idea what people are saying here. They do not speak Spanish in Puerto Rico. This is not the same language that I learned in the ccm!!! HELLLPP but it is still amazing! Everyday I am learning more! On Sunday I understood this one member and I got really excited! I later found out that was because he was from Mexico or somewhere that did not have the Puerto Rican accent! But it is all good! I have hope of learning the language and I can already feel myself understanding more day by day!

Also you all should watch the new safety videos from the church they are SOO very funny!!

I HAVE SO MUCH LOVE FOR EVERYONE ON THIS LIST! I HOPE EVERYONE IS ALL GOOD!

If anyone has seen Captain Marvel please reply with your movie reviews because NATALIE wonts tell me what happened!!!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!

Hermana Ellsworth Makes it to Puerto Rico!

(Hermana Ellsworth's Mission President's wife)

Dear Parents,

I am sorry this is a group email, but after a long flight, training and orientation, I am trying to save some time so we can pick up our last Elder coming in from England at 11:30 tonight.

What an amazing group of missionaries! It has certainly been confirmed to President and I that they were held in reserve for this exact time to come to Puerto Rico. Each one was radiant as they came off the plane. We feel so very fortunate to have them serving with us.

You are our first group of new missionaries that have the blessing of talking to your missionary each week. Many of the missionaries may choose to send emails instead of phone calls, some may call weekly while others call once a month. There is not a wrong or right with their decision. We have only been instructed that the missionaries use their judgment at the length of the call, and that they are to call (immediate) family members. Let the holy spirit guide.

Please do all you can to be a part of their mission, providing love and support. We hope you share uplifting thoughts that will encourage them as they adjust to mission life. And thank you for your love and support for President and I and entrusting us with your precious children. We love them already!!!

Love,

Sister Smart

We had half a baptism

(Sister Slade)

This week, we got a text that Brian was in the Hospital and had asked for a blessing. We got him a blessing. And then he asked his ex step son who is a gay priest to baptize him. It was actually really cool. When we first met Brian, he didn't really believe in God but now he does and has the desire to be baptized. Unfortunately, we haven't taught him about proper authority yet. It was also cool because his wife Beverly thought that he wasn't saved and was scared he would die before he had that opportunity. Then Brian asked if I could sing at his funeral. He's still hanging on, but he probably won't last much longer.

The only thing other thing I can think of that is worth mentioning is James. He is the person who asked us if he could be baptized. Our stake does a thing for the youth called Mini missions. James went to mini missions and during one of the devotionals, they were asking for participation by asking what the book of Mormon meant to them. James raised his hand and said that to him, "the Book of Mormon means discipline because the things he's learned from it have kept him out of trouble." Sister Davis and I were so happy! He also came to church on Sunday and he said he loved it.

Other than that, I can't think of anything else to mention. Maybe next week's will be a little more exciting.

I love you!

~Sister Slade

1. Sister Davis and I

2. We needed to clean our back windshield but the cleaner at the gas station had frozen.

3. The goat that was mentioned in my last email.

4. Another goat picture

5. Us with Brian a couple weeks ago.

Alma 40:11

(Aldste Cummings)

Tjabba.

This was quite the week. We had a number of really cool experiences.

It started out really warm this week. Some snow melted and because the roads are always c-o-v-e-r-e-d in hardened snow, everything is now incredibly icy. Like reallllllly icy. We both slipped many times. In places where the snow was thinner, it all melted away and you could see grass! But the grass was gray and matted and honestly disgusting so I was glad when it snowed again over the weekend and covered it up again. Take that, gR@§$.

The sun goes down after five o'clock now! It's a big difference than a couple months ago when it was dark by 13:30.

We asked a couple of people if we could shovel their driveways for them while we were out tracting. One of them said no because it was too slippery which we thought was just a bad excuse until we actually ended up slipping. Another one said no because she "needed" to do it herself whatever that means. Another came out of his house after we had just had a pleasant conversation with him and made us stop shoveling his driveway after we had already done half of it. We only shoveled one driveway this week and that was because the person wasn't home and couldn't tell us to stop. Guys, do me a favor and accept the missionaries' offer of service. We genuinely do want to help.

We saw tons of old stuff this week. A clock made in 1793, Swedish bibles printed in 1830, a man born in the 1920's, a house built in 1648, and a church built in 1492 (when Columbus sailed the ocean blue alltså).

Just as we finished out proselyting for the night and were heading home for dinner, I looked up and noticed that there was what appeared to be a green cloud in the sky. Huh. It took only a fraction of a second before I realized that my wildest dreams had come true and I was looking at the Northern Lights. Elder Mathias and I quickly ran through the snow onto a frozen lake and just stood and stared at the sky for about an hour or so. For the most part it was just a huge green streak that twisted and turned through the heavens, but about half and hour into it, the sky just went crazy. The whole scene was engulfed in swirling circles of green, purple, orange, and red.

Unfortunately our phones weren't sophisticated enough to take pictures, but a nice Scottish man who came to our viewing spot a little later took some and emailed them to us. Unfortunately, the pictures he wasn't able to get pictures of the peak but the ones we got will have to do. By far one of the most amazing moments of my life.

I just want to end this really quick with a quick testimony that life really does continue after death. There is a god in this world and He has prepared a way for us to return to Him. He loves us and longs for us to be embraced in His loving arms after we have passed from this life. May we live in such a way that we will be prepared and proud to meet Him.

Love,

Äldste Cummings

1. Old bibles (1830).

2. Old clock (1793) ft old man (1920's).

3. Old house (1648).

4. Old church (1492).

5. That's right, I live here (pt 16).

6. That's right, I live here (pt 17).